The Mahamuni Bronzes

The premises of the Mahamuni Paya in south-west Mandalay, Burma (Myanmar), shelter some Khmer bronze statues in Bayon style.

• A Dvarapala (guardian), larger-than-life, in royal outfit. Gems were inlayed in his eyes. The figure shows features of Shiva, like the frontal eye. And it has this charming 'Smile of Angkor'.
  It is, beyond the famous fragment of a reclining Vishnu in the National Museum Phnom Penh, the second-biggest known Khmer bronze.
• Two fragments of two different Dvarapala statues put together.
• Two lion rumps; the heads of the lions are from a later date and style.
• A statue of Airavan, the three-headed elephant. The heads are too small. Obviously the three-headed Airavan can only be depicted head-on in a relief.

1. Students from the 2002 German Tour Guide Training by Indochina Services in front of the statues. My love to you, my friends in Burma!
2. Statue of Dvarapala, head.
3. Statue of Dvarapla, total.
4. Statue of Airavan.

• Jean Boisselier, Note sur l'art du bronze dans l'ancien Cambdge, Artibus Asiae, 1967, p. 275 ff.
• Bruno Dagens, Angkor La forêt de pierre, Paris 1989, 2005, p. 20-21.
• Johann Reinhart Zieger, Angkor Tempel der Khmer, Chiang Mai 2006, p. 172.
• Lonely Planet Myanmar (Burma), 2006, p. 234.
• Map from Dagens.